Fiefdom
Under the system of
feudalism, a
fiefdom,
fief,
feud,
feoff, or
fee, often consisted of
heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a
liege lord in return for a form of allegiance, originally often to give him the means to fulfill his military duties when called upon. However anything of value could be held in fief, such as an office, a right of exploitation (e.g., hunting, fishing) or a revenue rather than the land it comes from.
The
vassal would perform
knight's service—usually fealty, military service, or security. The
conveyance of the interest in real estate by a lord to a vassal was often ceremonialized in the form of "feoffment with livery of
seisin" in which the lord and vassal would walk onto the property and the lord would physically place a twig or clod of earth from the property into the hands of the vassal. The vassal was then said to be "seised of the estate."
The vassals must not be confused with
Serfs, who were unfree, hence unable to contract an allegiance, but normally worked on the farms. There were however 'semi-free' vassals, known as
Ministeriales (Latin circa 'Servicemen'), especially amongst a Lords retinue, some of which used their direct access to the source of power in positions of confidence (e.g. domestic household or domanial administration) well enough to rise in station, sometimes even be ennobled.
Fiefdom usually required the vassal to obey conditions of customary and specified
homage and
fealty. In theory, a fief would provide revenue to equip and support the vassal knight to serve the liege lord. The fief was granted to the vassal, but remained in the
ownership of the liege lord. The lord did not have the right to withdraw the fief (unless the vassal broke his obligation) or to increase the dues for a fief.
Fiefs division could occur in an unlimited fashion, known as subinfeudation. This tended to weaken the unifying strength of the fief system owing to exaggerated distributed power structure and reduced efficiency in the feudal system.
The simplest form of a fief existed as a self-sufficient estate.
Fiefz, typically 1,000–2,000+ acres (4–8 km²), consisted of housing structures, barns, and gardens. There usually was a
hall (not necessarily a
manor), religious structures (commonly a
church), a
mill, a
winery, and/or an
oil press on the fief. The fief commonly had
arable land, meadows, pastures (the commons), fish ponds, and forests. Fiefs that possessed
cultivated arable land were divided into three large fields and farmed by the
three-field system of agriculture. One field was devoted to winter crops, another to summer crops, and a third lying fallow each year. The land was worked by peasants (known as
serfs). Generally, rights of cultivation on the fief were heritable among the serfs.
The vassal knight occupied the lord's fortified dwelling known as the manor house (if there was such a structure existing). Larger-than-common fiefs were in the hands of a
vassals-in-chief. Although a fief was usually a piece of land, it could also take the form of money or food called a
knight's fee.
Fief lands eventually gave way to the
village concept towards the end of the
medieval age.
While many other cultures have known, or sometimes still know, a form of feudalism, the precise traditions vary, so the terms can at best be considered 'equivalent', never synonymous.
The following list is far from completeIn
Japan, a fief is called "
han."
In
Persia, under the Qajar dynasty, a
tuyuldar held a large fief.
In feudal
India, forms of fief included the
jagir (land) and the
mansab, but often the same was true for formally administrative/domanial (especially tax-collecting) 'estates' such as
taluqa or
thikana*
Appanage (consisting in part of the liege's domain, granted to a junior relative)
*
Knight-service(incomplete)
*
RoyalArk- see each present country
